TUSCALOOSA, Alabama – A clear pattern has emerged. Down. Then up. Ice. Then fire. A cold-hot Alabama team falls behind. Then it heats up.

Lately, more often than not, it has won.

“It’s not by design,” coach Anthony Grant said Tuesday, the day before a 7 p.m. CST game at Auburn (SEC Network). “I like to play with the lead, to be honest with you. …”

His team took that pattern to extremes Saturday in a 58-54 victory at Vanderbilt. The Crimson Tide ended the game on an 18-3 run but didn’t take its first lead until the last minute.

“We’ve had several games where we’ve started off well and we’ve been able to build a lead, and then at the end of the half, we’ve had lulls,” Grant said. “The whole thing is consistency. That’s what every coach will tell you that’s what they want. They want to see consistency.”

Consistent inconsistency isn’t what Grant has in mind.

“When our guys are playing at their best, from an offensive and defensive standpoint, we’ve got a chance to be a very good basketball team,” he said. “We’ve just got to be able to find that consistency on both ends of the floor.”

Alabama (14-7, 6-2 SEC) will search for that missing element Wednesday night on the floor of Auburn Arena.

Alabama has trailed at halftime in five of its eight SEC games to date. Its record in those games is a remarkable 4-1. The loss was at Missouri. The Tide lost one of the three games in which it led at halftime (at Tennessee).

Alabama is hot. Auburn (9-13, 2-6) is cold. The Tide has won five of its past six games. The Tigers have lost six consecutive games. The skid started with a double-overtime loss at Arkansas. It includes a two-point loss to Ole Miss, which is tied with Alabama and Kentucky for second place in the SEC.

“Everybody that we play in the SEC is a very good team, and Auburn is no different,” Grant said. “They’ve had some tough losses where it’s been a one-possession game that could have gone either way. They’re a very good basketball team. … We have a tremendous amount of respect for their team, how hard they’ve played. They’re a very well-coached team, and we expect it to be a great game.”

Alabama has won five consecutive games in a series that it leads 89-56. Grant is 5-1 against the Tigers. Auburn coach Tony Barbee is 0-4 against the Tide.

Fifth-year senior guard Andrew Steele is the only Alabama player who has experienced losing to the Tigers. That happened twice in 2009, when he was a freshman. He was injured and did not play in a 2010 loss at Auburn.

“A very talented player, a veteran guy,” Grant said of Sullivan. “He’s been around the league. He’s seen it all. He’s having an outstanding year for them. He leads them in almost every offensive category. He’s got great leadership qualities. He’s a very good player.”

Sullivan had been averaging 17.8 points per game through the overtime loss at Arkansas in which he scored 26 points, but he has averaged only 12.6 points in five games since then.

In four games against Alabama, he has averaged 10.8 points on 13-36 shooting from the field (.361).

In four games against Auburn, Releford has averaged 8.8 points. His career field-goal shooting percentage is .481, but against the Tigers, it is .269 (7-26).

After a 6-0 November, Alabama was 1-5 in December, but it was 6-2 in January before getting a new month started with a victory. The march to March is under way.

“We’re doing OK,” Grant said. “It’s February. I think our guys understand the sense of urgency that we have to have in preparation for every game. Our focus is to take it one game at a time and try to control what we can control.

“The last couple of games, the thing that I’ve been pleased with is that our guys have found a way to win. I’m always going to be looking at areas where we can improve, things that we can do better. The fight that we’ve shown has been good. We need to continue that and just need to continue to get better.”

This will be Alabama’s ninth SEC game. It will have nine more to go.

“We’re in a position where we can control our own destiny,” said Grant, whose team trails second-ranked Florida (8-0) by two games. “The key for us is to stay focus on one game at a time and not look ahead and not look behind us. Just to stay focused on the here and now.

“For everybody, not just these guys that are college students, all of us go through it where sometimes it’s difficult to do. That’s probably the biggest thing is keeping them focused on where they need to be.”